Forex Prop Trading Firms

FTMO

Introduces a Top Scaling Plan

FTMO is a celebrated (Making Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 for 4 years running), reputable, and accomplished prop firm. It stands out for having the best scaling plan for your funded account, allowing for increasing your capital by 25% every 4 months.

Key Strengths:

• Profit split of 90%
• Free repeat of audition
• Great range of trading platforms
• Good assortment of trading products

Trading Plans and Accounts

Your risk appetite can dictate the trading program you choose at FTMO – Normal and Aggressive. Both accounts feature an assessment in 2 parts corresponding with profit targets and daily loss and max loss limits that you must meet.

The Normal plan is for beginner traders, featuring reduced profit targets and maximum loss limits. Capital range from $10K to $200K and will cost you at least €155, fully refundable once you pass the evaluation phases.

The Aggressive plan ups the ante with increased profit targets and drawdown limits. Like Normal, accounts start at $10K but only go as high as $100K. Fees start higher, at €250 for Aggressive.

With the Normal and Aggressive plans’ evaluation phases, your profit target and loss limits in step 2 are half of those of step 1, making it more achievable. What’s more step 1 gives you 30 days to achieve your target and step 2 double that or 60 days.

Once you succeed in passing the 2-step assessment, you will be entitled to a fully funded account, starting with 80% profit, on the higher end for prop firms. Your profit share can be increased to 90% with a rewards plan where 25% increases are added to your account every 4 months up until it reaches $2M. You only need to generate a 10% profit over 4 months to scale up and not less than 2 months out of the 4 ending positive.

Charges are quoted and paid in Euros.

FTMO promotes a good all-around assortment of products, especially forex which has 46 currency pairs available to trade. There is also a decent range of equities, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. One unique aspect of FTMO that not all prop firms offer is the ability to trade in futures.

Trading Platforms

FTMO has one of the better selections of trading platforms, It has both the MT4 and MT5 along with cTrader. MT4 is suited to trade the forex currency pairs of FTMO while MT5 is the upscaled version having more features. cTrader provides an excellent alternative platform with a good depth of market and upgraded trading tools. Unfortunately, U.S. traders will not be able to use cTrader due to constraints imposed by regulations.

Verdict

In summary, FTMO offers prop traders a rewarding pathway to command $2M capital in their account and collect up to 90% of their profits. FTMO also provides a comprehensive selection of trading platforms and a decent variety of products.

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The 5%ers

The Best Offer of an Instant Funding Account

The 5%ers, also referred to as 5ers, enjoys a distinctive reputation among prop firms as having the best instant funding account. This is because the prop firm enables you to trade on a live account from the beginning.

Key Strengths:

• 100% profit split maximum
• Advancement to a $4M account
• 1 year audition trading period
• Fees as low as €95

Trading Plans and Accounts

The 5ers recently updated its range of trading accounts and now offers the following plans:

• Instant Funding
• High Stakes Challenge
• Bootcamp

Every one of the plans is suited for different levels of trading experience. Instant Funding and Bootcamp are for beginners. On the other hand, more proficient traders can opt for the High Stakes Challenge.

Instant Funding gives you the choice of kicking off with a $10K, $20K, or $40K account. The major benefit of Instant Funding is the chance to realise income once you hit your first profit target of 10%. From day 1, you are using real money to trade, not a demo account. The condition is that you must adhere to a maximum total loss of 6% and reach your profit target within 12 months. Fees range from $260 to $850 to enroll in an Instant Funding account.

The High Stakes Challenge starts you on higher capital, with accounts ranging from $20K to $100K. A 2-step audition or evaluation process awaits those signing in for this plan. You must generate 8% profit in phase 1 and 5% in phase 2 of the audition. Having reached these targets, you can then increase your account to the next level for every 10% profit milestone you achieve. As is standard, your daily max loss is 5% and max total loss is 10%.

The Bootcamp challenge consists of  3 steps where you are given a choice between $100K in starting capital or $250K. At each step, you are required to generate 6% profit within 1 year and working your account balance up by $25K each time. Your maximum total loss is 5% for the challenges. Once you pass the challenges, your profit target is brought down to 5% and your max loss limit to 4%.

Once you have hurdled the audition process, you will be entitled to a fully funded account, inclusive of the opportunity of keeping 100% of your profit. Pre-existing profit share with the Instant Funding and Bootcamp accounts is 50% and 80% for the High Stakes Challenge.

The 5%ers offers a rather narrower range of financial instruments by specialising in forex. 28 major and minor pairs, 6 indices, gold, and silver are available to trade. All products are tradable as CFDs. Leverages available per product vary based on the plan you opt for. The highest leverage you can trade is 1:100 for the High Stakes Challenge, giving you more purchasing power.

Trading Platforms

The 5%ers offers MetaTrader 5 as its sole trading platform. As far as trading platforms go, however, MT5 is as good a third-party platform as you can get. MT5 particularly offers great charting features for technical analysis, including 38 technical indicators, 44 graphical objects and 21 timeframes.

Verdict

Overall, you can consider 5%ers as a solid choice for a prop firm. It is one of the limited number of prop firms that offer a live trading account with on-the-spot funding. It is likewise one of very few to make available the option of earning up to 100% of profit with affordable fees to boot.

If you are after another prop firm with instant funding, take a look at out FundedNext Review.

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City Traders Imperium

Offers Up To 100% Profit Split

UK prop firm, City Traders Imperium stands out for its offer of a maximum profit share of 100%, which is hard to go past. While the standard profit split stands at 70%, there are channels to increase this to 100% through several rewarding trading plans.

Key Strengths:

• Trading plans for any trading technique
• No daily loss limits offered
• To audition or not is a choice
• Flexible trading time

Trading Plans and Accounts

City Traders Imperium offers 4 trading account models as follows:

• Challenge  – $10K to $100K
• Standard – $2.5K to $17.5K
• Classic – $2.5K to $17.5K
• Direct – $10K to $100K

Three out of four plans have an assessment process, Direct excluded, where you are qualified for a live account from when you sign in. All plans similarly give you the chance to gain 100% of your profits once you pass the audition. The baseline profit split is 70% for most accounts.

The Challenge plan features 2 phases in its audition that have a total of 45 trading days to successfully complete. To pass, you need to make 10% profit for phase 1 and 5% for phase 2. These are standard among prop firms. You will have to stay within a 4% daily loss limit or 10% total loss limit. Affordable charges start at £109.

Standard and Classic are both very similar plans, only varying in the profit target, the period in which to trade, and fees. Classic requires you to have a longer trading period plus a decreased profit target. A 7% profit target within a year for Classic, while Standard demands you to make a 9% profit in 6 months. Daily loss limits are not imposed in both plans but give you a max drawdown of 5%. Charges are similar as well which are between £109 to £659, dependent on which account you choose.

Lastly, the Direct plan features a direct course to a live account, with no audition. Meaning, you also have no time limit or profit target. By the same token, every 10% profit you make entitles you to an upscale of your account. You still have a max total loss of 5% to adhere to. The Direct charges are higher in view of the risk the prop firm is taking on. Such fees are from £1059 to £3649.

CTI being a British prop firm, all charges are paid in GBP.

City Traders only offers 3 asset classes: 28 forex pairs, 3 commodities, and 9 stock indexes. These products can be traded as CFD (Contract for Difference) instruments.

Trading Platforms

Like the 5ers, City Traders Imperium only has the MT5 as its trading platform. this should be sufficient in light of the prop firm’s limited product range.

Verdict

Overall, City Traders Imperium the chance to earn up to 100% of your profits, and a good advancement plan make it an attractive option. The reasonable costs and instant funding in the Direct account makes choosing CTI even more desirable.

City Traders Imperium ReviewCITY TRADERS IMPERIUM

TopStep

Features Great Education Courses and Trader Support

TopStep Trader has the best variety of learning systems and trader support than any prop firm, with free coaching, social trader communities to interact with, and comprehensive education courses.

Key Strengths:

• Massive assortment of trading platforms
• Earn up to 90% profits
• Top social trading community
• Fast compensation payouts

Trading Plans and Accounts

TopStep has only one trading plan, the Trading Combine. To avail, you need to pass an audition consisting of two steps before you receive an account with funds. Your options are to select either one of these amounts in your account to start with – $50K, $100K, or $150K.

In the assessment stage, you must produce a profit of 6% in each of the steps and stick within a 2% daily loss limit and 3 or 4% max trailing drawdown. This profit target is much less than the average but your max loss limits are also tighter, not giving your account much room to breathe.

Your fees are to be paid monthly up until you are able to hit your audition targets, surely a disadvantage of TopStep. However, the monthly fees stop the moment you qualify. Monthly charges start at $165 and go up to $375 during Trading Combine’s audition.

Once you become a funded trader of TopStep funded trader, 90% of your profits is yours to enjoy, which is a top profit share structure.

TopStep only offers trading futures products, which lends to the uniqueness of this UK prop firm. You are entitled to trade over 37 forex, commodities, equities, and interest-rate products. This is even much less than what the majority of prop firms offer.

Trading Platforms

TopStep offers one of the biggest assortment of trading platforms in the industry, thus providing you with numerous options. The three most recommended platforms are:

• TS Trader
• NinjaTrader
• QuanTower

TS Trader is powered by Tradeovate, which is among of three major brokerages TopStep passes through. NinjaTrader and Cunningham complete the list.

Notably, you will have to pay subscription fees for the majority of platforms. The trading platforms that do not require licenses are TS Trader, QuanTower, TradingView and T4.

Verdict

TopStep is different from a lot of prop firms, giving admission to the large spectrum of trading platforms, great trader support, individual coaching, and the ability to trade futures products while getting to keep up to 90% of the profits you generate.

Prop trading with futures trading is an alternative to CFD prop trading. To read more about another broker that has futures is, read our The Trading Pit Review.

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Earn2Trade

Biggest Selection of Products

The US prop firm, Earn2Trade distinguishes itself by providing the most comprehensive selection of products that can be traded in the market. It grants each client admission to products from all CME exchanges, including CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX.

Key Strengths:

• A whopping $400K starting capital
• Profit split of 80%
• more than sufficient trading platforms
• Beginner prop trading course

Trading Plans and Accounts

The Gauntlet Mini and Trader Career Path are Earn2Trade’s main trading plans. You can start with a $25,000 or $50,000 account that gives you funding of a maximum of $200K and $400k, respectively. You need to take and pass a test on a virtual account before you become funded.

The evaluation of the Gauntlet Mini involves meeting a 5.5% or 6% profit target depending on your starting capital. The target must be met without losing 2.2% max per day or 3-4% in total trailing drawdown.

Trader Career Path has two progression-level options: TCP25 and TCP50. They differ in starting capital, while there are also minor variations in profit target and trailing drawdown.

TCP25 starts you off with a $25K virtual demo account, in which you must accomplish a profit target of 7%. Trading within max loss limits of 2.2% daily and 6% in total are also requisites.

TCP50 starts you off with $50K and a profit target and a trailing drawdown lower by a percentage than that of TCP25.

Once you pass the evaluation of any of the Trader Career Path options, a fully funded account is yours for the taking, and proceed in moving up the progression ladder with a larger account size while meeting your profit goals.

One unique distinction that Earn2Trade programs have is that you can only have the requisite number of open contracts. This is one of the requirements for you to pass the evaluation.

Monthly fees are charged, which gives Earn2Trade a slight disadvantage considering that most prop firms charge one-time, refundable fees. Fees can be as low as $120 to as high as $440 per month.

Earn2Trade allows you to trade the entire CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) futures asset range, across the CME, CBOT, NYMEX and COMEX exchanges. It provides you with a huge selection of financial instruments that range from forex, equities, indices, bonds and agriculture, energy, metals, oils, etc. You can visit the CME website for the list of products.

Trading Platforms

Earn2Trade has one of the most extensive arrays of trading platforms, as indicated below. The diverse platforms each come with their unique characteristic. As an example, MultiCharts and Sierra Chart specialise in charting best used for technical analysis.

Except for R Trader and R Trader Pro license keys for all the other platforms require payment. NinjaTrader, R Trader, and R Trader Pro can be considered as the most versatile trading platforms on the list.

Verdict

Earn2Trade offers an exceptionally extensive range of futures products and trading platforms to trade. You will obtain a profit split of 80% once you successfully complete the evaluation and can trade capital up $400K with the prop firm.

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True Forex Funds

Tightest Spread Prop Trading Account

True Forex Funds boasts the tightest forex spreads in the prop trading market with access to Raw spread pricing through Eightcap. This allows spreads for most major forex pairs to start as low as 0 pips.

Key Strengths:

• Profit split of 80%
• Affordable, refundable fees
• Funding in USD, EUR or GBP
• Earn profits every 2 weeks

Trading Plans and Accounts

True Forex Funds only has one trading plan with accounts ranging from $10K to $200K.

You must pass a 2-phase evaluation to receive a fully funded account with True Forex Funds. This evaluation requires a profit of 8% in the first phase and 5% in the second. True Forex Funds gives you 30 days to pass Phase 1’s evaluation and 60 days for Phase 2.

Your max daily and overall loss limits are the same across both evaluation phases at 5% and 10% respectively. Once you pass the evaluation phases, you will be able to trade with an 80% profit split in a live account.

Fees are reasonable, ranging from €89 to €998. All fees are charged in EUR, so you may have to convert to your funding currency.

True Forex Funds offers a good spread of over 100 financial instruments to trade, across forex, stocks, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies. You can only trade forex products on weekdays (Monday to Friday) while cryptos are tradeable 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. All products are tradeable as CFDs.

Trading Platforms

My Forex Funds offers the full MetaTrader suite (MT4 + MT5). This gives prop traders who specialise in either MT4 or MT5, a chance to choose the one you’re most comfortable with. My Forex Funds allows EAs and even algorithmic (or bot) trading on either platform.

Verdict

Overall, True Forex Funds is a no fuss prop firm, with one simple account structure, a great range of trading products and an 80% profit split.

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All-round Prop Firm With Good Customization

Offers Great Account Flexibility

SurgeTrader stands out with the best all-round experience as a prop firm. This means SurgeTrader offers a simple account structure, a straight-forward audition process, and a good profit share structure.

Why We Like SurgeTrader

• Ability to scale up to $1,000,000
• Account customisations
• Earn up to 90% profit
• Active online trading community

Trading Plans and Accounts

SurgeTrader offers 6 different account plans from Starter to Master, scaled based on starting capital. We think this is a great selection of funding options, positioning SurgeTrader as an attractive prop firm regardless of your experience level. Another broker with $1,000,000 in funding is Fidelcrest.

Account Customisation

SurgeTrader has “add-ons” that allow features that allow to tweak certain trading conditions to your preference. For example for 20% of your assessment fee, you can book your profit split from 75% to 90%.

Additional customisation purchase options allow you to double your leverage for all markets and eliminate the necessity for a stop loss. Alternatively, you can opt to include all three add-on options as part of a bundle for a total of 40% of the audition price.

Qualification and Rules

Every plan has a one-step evaluation phase which requires achieving a 10% profit target without incurring a 5% daily loss limit or 8% max trailing drawdown.

Community and Education

SurgeTrader takes pride in its robust trading community, providing excellent educational resources on their website and YouTube channel. They also have an active Discord community comprised of more than 12,000 members, including 117 funded members and six US $1 million account holders.

We think if you’re looking for a prop firm which offers great educational materials and a solid community of like-minded traders, then SurgeTrader could be the one for you.

Our Verdict On SurgeTrader And Their Add-ons

Whether it’s the various degrees of account customisation offered, their active online trading community, or their simple audition rules, there is no denying that SurgeTeader is an attractive option in the prop trading market.